Hugh Stevenson design
Costume Design
1950 (painted)
1950 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for unnamed Shakespearean character, showing full length female figure wearing low necked Elizabethan dress with pointed bodice in bright rose red, the huge padded and banded sleeves in blue pink with blue and purple lines on the sleeves indicating slashing and cuffs of ochre with red decoration. The petticoat is blue pink with a band of blue and purple set with ochre at the hem. Draped across the neck and falling down the back, secured on the shoulders with red 'stones' set in ochre is a wide yellow fringed stole decorated with lines of blue, orange brown, blue set with purple and rows of ochre dots. The headdress is a half tiara, upcurving at the front, of ochre and yellow set with red 'stones', with a pearl swag at the side; from the back of the hair and down the left side of the figure and pale blue purple lines indicating a veil.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Hugh Stevenson design (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil and gouache on paper |
| Brief description | Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for unnamed character (possibly Desdemona) in a programme of scenes from Shakespeare, British Council tour, early 1950s |
| Physical description | Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for unnamed Shakespearean character, showing full length female figure wearing low necked Elizabethan dress with pointed bodice in bright rose red, the huge padded and banded sleeves in blue pink with blue and purple lines on the sleeves indicating slashing and cuffs of ochre with red decoration. The petticoat is blue pink with a band of blue and purple set with ochre at the hem. Draped across the neck and falling down the back, secured on the shoulders with red 'stones' set in ochre is a wide yellow fringed stole decorated with lines of blue, orange brown, blue set with purple and rows of ochre dots. The headdress is a half tiara, upcurving at the front, of ochre and yellow set with red 'stones', with a pearl swag at the side; from the back of the hair and down the left side of the figure and pale blue purple lines indicating a veil. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Credit line | Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest |
| Object history | This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a British Council tour in the early 1950s. It was performed by a small company led by Walter Fitzgerald and called for costumes that would clearly indicate the different characters while allowing for quick changes. This Stevenson achieved by creating a basic costume in the Elizabethan style for each actor to which were added robes, tunics, overdresses or accessories. The designs are part of the collection that came to the Museum from the dance historian and publisher Cyril Beaumont and may originally have formed part of the London Archives of the Dance. Historical significance: A group of designs showing how a designer solves the problem of creating costumes for a programme of extracts from various Shakespeare plays (which means allowing for quick changes), by creating several basic costumes which can be adapted, or to which accessories can be added, to indicate specific characters |
| Subject depicted | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.170:2-2000 |
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| Record created | September 14, 2000 |
| Record URL |
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